This invention relates to a machine and a method for the thermal treatment and production of liquid and semi-liquid food products.
More specifically, this invention relates to machines for the thermal treatment of food products such as ice creams, whipped cream, creams, chocolate, yogurt, granita and the like.
Machines of this kind are, for example and not only, machines known as “pasteurizers”, capable of mixing, cooking, pasteurizing, homogenizing, cooling, aging and storing under perfect conditions of hygiene, diverse specialty foods of the patisserie, ice cream and gourmet sectors.
Generally speaking, these machines comprise a tank for containing the product to be subjected to the thermal treatment, at least one dispenser tap mounted at the bottom of the front of the tank and a stirrer mounted inside the tank for mixing the product.
According to known methods, the thermal treatment is generally performed by means of electrical resistors and/or a heating system based on a thermodynamic cycle.
Some machines of this type are equipped with two or more tanks, each used to treat the product inside it.
In these machines, however, which will hereinafter be called “multiple tank” machines, the thermal treatment (heating/cooling) means are limited in their operational versatility.
The limited operational versatility of prior art thermal treatment means on the one hand limits the variety of products obtainable from the same machine and, on the other, does not allow very different products to be made simultaneously, in particular cold products in one tank and hot products in another tank (for example, ice cream and hot chocolate).
Generally speaking, therefore, machines of the above mentioned type are divided into two categories: those for making cold products and those for making hot products.